


Columbus Egg

by misura



Category: Enchantment Emporium - Tanya Huff
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: smallfandomfest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-07 01:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1879239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"You work with your <i>dad</i>?" Jack asked, eyes wide and body utterly still - Michael watched the effect spread through the room, until everybody'd stopped talking or eating or doing whatever it was they'd been doing and they were all staring at Brian instead.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Columbus Egg

"You work with your _dad_?" Jack asked, eyes wide and body utterly still - Michael watched the effect spread through the room, until everybody'd stopped talking or eating or doing whatever it was they'd been doing (clearly, an Auntie would hardly be doing anything so immature as playing with a yoyo) and they were all staring at Brian instead.

It probably wasn't the first time Brian'd found himself the center of attention. His audience was usually more ... male, though, and far more concerned with how he looked and what he was or wasn't wearing than with what he was saying.

Or, as the case might be, with what he was about to say.

"Well, yeah." Brian shrugged, as if he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Possibly he hadn't. Possibly, Matt Bomer could have come walking through the door, naked, without Brian noticing.

Jack might not be an Auntie, but he _was_ an immensely powerful sorcerer. Also, a dragon. And while Brian was blissfully unaware of both things, he probably still noticed _something_.

The human race hadn't survived all these centuries without developping some senses that warned them when they were in the presence of a larger predator, after all.

On the other hand, _don't look away from the big, bad dragon_ might not exactly be the kind of instinct that enabled one to survive. (Then again, _run away now_ wasn't going to be doing much good there, either.)

"In Vancouver," Michael said quickly, because Brian didn't look like he was getting it. "Not here."

Naturally, it was hardly Brian's fault he didn't understand the significance of the question. Michael wasn't quite sure how to open that particular can of worms without using words like 'magic' and 'dragons', to say nothing of 'infanticide'.

Up until right now, it hadn't quite occurred to Michael that to Jack, Brian had to seem one lucky guy. Or that this excellent excuse for some teenage angst and a bit of raging against the unfairness of life in general (possibly accompanied by loud music) would translate to an apparent desire to go and see the wonders of Vancouver.

Jack looked at Allie. Allie bit her lip and looked away - not at the Aunties, which Michael would have expected, but at Michael.

 _"You've told Allie no exactly one time in your life,"_ David had told him. The fact that he'd been right didn't mean Michael felt he should change that strategy now - assuming he even could.

Of course, Allie wasn't asking ... yet. Jack was, more or less. Michael liked Jack, or thought he might find him likeable enough to have around every day.

Still, the decision wasn't just his.

Michael looked at Brian. Brian looked back. (The Aunties, Michael couldn't help but notice weren't doing anything to intervene. Or rather, their attention was still solely on Jack. That, in itself, might be considered significant.)

"Jack has recently ... lost his father," Michael said cautiously. It was true. "Allie offered him her home." Also true. "She felt he needed to be staying somewhere safe, and stable." Still true, although from what he'd heard, compared to the family life Jack had known up until now, an active war zone might very well have qualified as being an environment that was both safer and more stable.

Brian's expression implied he was thinking about it. Trying to think about it, anyway.

"Well, we did check out the blueprints to our apartment building pretty thoroughly," Brian offered finally, and it took Michael a few seconds to realize he was trying to make a joke.

"Allie?" Jack said, and in that one instant, he was all kid. The sweet kind, with puppy eyes.

And Allie'd want to be spending time with Graham, naturally; she'd be busy for a while yet with the aftermath, and the store, and creating a place of her own here. Having Jack underfoot wouldn't help.

"We could fire proof the guest room," Michael said. Brian looked mystified, but he didn't ask. He might, later, but for now, he'd just roll along. One of the many things Michael loved him for.

"But ... " Allie protested, her expression more guilty than reluctant. "Are you sure?"

"Good, that's settled then," Auntie Jane said. "We'll be sure to send you boys some pies."

 

Jack didn't much care for the plane, which Brian interpreted as a fear of flying and Michael, knowing better, interpreted as a dislike for a mode of transportation that, to Jack, seemed rather inferior to the one he'd have preferred to use.

Their flight departed exactly on time and arrived early, which Brian called a 'miracle' and Michael privately considered a reminder that out of sight did not mean out of mind where the Aunties were concerned. Not that he'd needed to be reminded of that.

Besides, there would be pies.

(There had been pies before, occasionally. He strongly suspected they'd be arriving more often now, though, and come with charms that were a little bit different from the usual 'don't forget your scarf' in Winter time, or 'wear sunscreen' in Summer.)

 

"So, is this an official adoption?" Brian asked, with Jack safely installed in their not yet more or less dragon proofed guest room. "Because my dad's probably going to ask, and I'd like to know what to tell him."

Michael liked Brian's father. "Tell him it's just a temporal thing." One should probably not inflict a teenage sorcerer slash dragon as a first grandchild on someone one liked.

He wondered if dragons would even be familiar with the concept of a grandchild - or a grandparents for that matter. Probably not. _Talk about a generation gap._

Brian nodded. "I'll look into fire proofing the guest room first thing tomorrow."

"Thanks." Michael wondered if one should inflict a teenage sorcerer slash dragon as anything on someone one liked. A little too late for second thoughts now, of course.

"You know, if you're not going to tell, I'm not going to ask."

"I know," Michael said. _That's why I'm going to be thinking way too long about what to tell you, and then probably blurt out the whole thing in an unguarded moment._ He'd deal with that mess when it happened.

"He seems a nice kid. Bit hot-tempered, maybe."

"More than a bit." _That's why you're fire proofing the guest room._

"If the two of you aren't going to mate right now, maybe one of you could show me where you keep your pies," Jack said, eying them both a little peevishly from the door opening.

(Michael supposed having a dragon call you out on being romantic was still better than having him call you on talking about him behind his back, if not by much.)


End file.
